James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

A while ago I noticed this piece of heavy equipment sleeping on a job site and decided to sketch a picture of it. It’s a Caterpillar 637 elevating scraper.

For an oil study like this where I’m only interested in the object and not the surroundings, sometimes I start with a piece of masonite primed with white oil paint. A brush works as well as a pencil for laying in the shapes, and you can get to detailed rendering right away.

Thanks, you guys. Yeah, I just have a few panels primed with white oil for these vignetted sketches. It's funny how we always vignette drawings, but not paintings as often. I think it took about two hours.

Every time I see something like this it reminds me once again that subject matter has nothing to do with artistic merit. It is nice to see these vignetted oil studies and this one is a beauty. I did one once of my brother-in-law's Harley, but it took me a lot longer than two hours!

JG-Again I am curios about the rendering of mechanical shapes with brush and oil paints...are these lines all freehand without guides?

When I do life drawing I find that I can hide my line drawing inadequacies with application of tone. What is "king" in your mind when documenting an image from life? The the line drawing, the tonal form, the accurate depiction of color, the emotional impression...? Yes more art school questions...sorry :-)

This painting definitely shows that you are using powers of observation and not just relying on familiarity with the subject to transcribe what you see in front of you.You must have great efficiency in your process to complete this earthmover image in two hours - what size is the original?

I would love to see a video of you at work on an image like this one. Even one of those ubiquitous and horribly accelerated clips on youtube.

Jonathan, the painting was done without any mechanical aids, and it's not as finished as it looks; and probably an expert on these rigs would spot the mistakes right away. But I was just trying to document the details as accurately as I could. I was fascinated by the niggly details on the engine at left in contrast to the big shapes of the "belly" of the beast in the center.